I've never seen nor heard of one before, but I believe that its competley possible. THe meteorite could be made of copper which burns green

not copper there a no copper meteorites.
some nickel iron meteorites should burn with a green color
this can be seen when you smelt a metal with a high nickel content

the composition of a meteorite depends entirely on where it comes from surely?

Anyway from the wikipedia article the OP posted:

On July 24 (1949) a green fireball was observed falling close to Socorro, New Mexico. Dust samples were collected at the School of Mines there and were found to contain large particles of copper. LaPaz found this highly significant, since copper burns with the same yellow-green color characteristic of the green fireballs. He also noted that if the copper particles came from the green fireballs, then they could not be conventional meteorites, since copper was never found in dust of meteoritic origin. LaPaz suggested that further air and ground samples be taken in areas where the fireballs were seen.

I assume this would put them as being something other than an ordinary meteorite, and from a different source as well. Don't forget that since copper occurs naturally on Earth it is entirely possible, if not certain that it occurs elsewhere in the solar system and as such if a different object knocked some off of another planet or moon, or even from the asteroid belt, we could get green meteors occur here.

Of course, from the description in the wikipedia article it seems unlikely that such meteorites are entirely natural in origin, whether they come from earth or somewhere else.

Also, I'd never heard of a green meteorite before. Sounds a bit like Day of the Triffids to me.

Hi, I live in Western Mass and my husband also saw the green object at apx. the same time. He also thought "fireworks" but then said that because it was coming straight down it had to be a fireball of sorts. From our location we thought it was over Vermont, but if you saw it in Canada then it must have been pretty big.

Originally posted by EsseVi
Hi, I live in Western Mass and my husband also saw the green object at apx. the same time. He also thought "fireworks" but then said that because it was coming straight down it had to be a fireball of sorts. From our location we thought it was over Vermont, but if you saw it in Canada then it must have been pretty big.

Wow! I cant believe it was spotted in Mass, that object must have been huge! I thought for sure it must have been over top of one of the near by cities here in southern Ontario.

I listened to AM680 news radio this morning and heard no mention of the green fireball. I also purchased two Toronto based newspapers this morning and again no mention (not surprising considering the paper was probably near completion at the time of the event). Were there any mentions of the object by the media in your area EsseVi?

Thanks for posting those videos Evasius... I viewed all of them and the one that most closely resemblems what I saw was the video from Saltsburg PA (only difference being that the tail was green, it lasted no more then 5 seconds and heading straight down)

Hey Verbal I live in Maple and I spoted the same object at excately 10.38 while I was having a smoke at my porch. From where I live the object looked like was in a point in sky between Wonderland and highway 400. Since is a flybye area for the comercial airlines I first thought was a plane but I too got amazed by the strange greenish hue that emited. Is the second unusual object I see in the last week. Maybe was a meteorite (never heard for a green one though) but definitely wasn't a plane.

[edit on 29-10-2007 by Telos]

Originally posted by augoldminer
not copper there a no copper meteorites.
some nickel iron meteorites should burn with a green color
this can be seen when you smelt a metal with a high nickel content

Er, yes there are! Whatever make's you think that Copper cannot be in a meteorite?

There is a 37-ton copper meteorite in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Originally posted by Verbal_Hologram
Were there any mentions of the object by the media in your area EsseVi?

No nothing was mentioned in todays local news. I even checked spaceweather.com to if it was mentioned there. My husband just happened to look out the window at that precise moment when he saw it, by the time I looked it was too late. He said that it came straight down, it was green and kind of blinked or flashed on and off for a second. When I told him that it was also seen in Canada he was amazed.

All I can say is that those of you who saw it are truly lucky! Probably a once in a lifetime experience and I missed it.

Hi, I have to put my 2 cents in on this post. back in 2003 I was out having a cigarette on my work break at 11pm. what I saw that night was a neon green ball. I would say 3 basketballs in size. come straight down from the sky. It did not have a tail and it came right down on the road but did not splatter. It disappeared. This was glowing a real bright green light one of them neon green glow in the dark things. no cars were around and I was out in the country. I ran back into the building cause it scared me and told my co-workers who then asked me if I also saw little green men. I reported this to the MI UfO people online also the same night when I got home.

I live very close to Bolton, unfortunately, I wasn't outside to see anything at that time.

Too bad, I could have very easily corroberated this story.

Also, there is the brampton flying club east of Bolton as well, which I have seen circling lights over that made me look twice before I realized that the airport was right around the corner.

Interesting though.

Originally posted by Verbal_Hologram

I looked up the Holmes (17P) comet on starry night and to my amazement it is almost directly above the location of where the green meteorite was spotted...I can not help but wondering if there is a correlation between the two or if it is purely coincidental??

Still no mention in the news, looks like everyone is too busy observing Holmes to notice what may be above it. Verbal, how did you come to that conclusion? If that's the case, this is even stranger than I can imagine.

I am also wondering if the green color could be barium compounds? Any thoughts on that? My husband used to professionally shoot fireworks displays and he said that barium compounds are used to make green and copper compounds to make blues.

I sent an email to the North American Meteor Network and invited them to join our conversation. I hope they respond.

Also, I live near Williams College and they have an extensive observatory, but they don't seem to update their webpage from what I can tell.

Kevin, Thank you so much for joining us.

It appeared to fall straight down at about 90 degrees in relation to the ground, is this unusual? It did not appear to go across the sky. It lasted only a second, less than 2. It was green, then it darkened and became green again before it disappeared so probably not space junk.

Originally posted by EsseVi
Kevin, Thank you so much for joining us.

It appeared to fall straight down at about 90 degrees in relation to the ground, is this unusual? It did not appear to go across the sky. It lasted only a second, less than 2. It was green, then it darkened and became green again before it disappeared so probably not space junk.

This is exactly how I would describe the event as well. I have filled out a report for your website Kevin.

I heard no mention of the incident in media here today either Esse. I came to the conclusion that Holmes was almost directly above the fireball by looking up the comets location on the Starry Nights software program. I figured a correlation between the two might have been a long shot, but still I felt obligated to bring up the idea. Thanks Kevin for your input and response!

Also CHUD, this fireball did not change colors it remained green for the short period of time it was visible.

Enrikez, your corroberation would have been very helpful! Perhaps next time! Also, the location of the Brampton Flying club is in the opposite direction to which I saw the fireball.

Originally posted by Verbal_Hologram
Also CHUD, this fireball did not change colors it remained green for the short period of time it was visible.

Verbal_Hologram,
That is not unusual. The example I gave in my previous post is for a typical bright meteor. Other factors such as angle of entry and composition will also play a part in determining what color the meteor will appear and when. No two meteors will be exactly the same in appearance, even those from the same source, although they may share many of the same characteristics.

One reason why the one you saw remained green might be since it did not penetrate deep enough into the atmosphere to reach the the more Nitrogen rich part before all the material had alabated away. The angle of entry and size of the original meteoroid would play a large part in this. Meteors with very low entry angles (often called "earthgrazers") can skim the outer parts of our atmosphere, and in some cases escape Earth's gravity and fly back out into space. Many of these can appear green for a substantial part of their path, and to a correctly positioned observer, might appear to "shoot down".

That's just one possible scenario, but as I said before, no two meteors are exactly alike, and meteors can display very varied behaviors when it comes to color. As someone else noted earlier, almost any color is possible with a meteor, and in some cases (especially with brighter fireballs) you can see them all! (although I must admit I've never heard of anyone seeing a deep purple meteor!)

Some meteors just stay the same color throughout their flight. This is typical behavior for Geminid meteors for example, which are almost always either slightly yellow in color or have no color at all. Why this is so, is still a mystery as far as I know, although I think there may be a clue in that the source is thought to be an asteroid rather than a comet (the vast majority of known meteor showers are believed to be of cometary origin), which suggests that the composition of the meteoroid plays a large part in how the meteor appears during it's flight through our atmosphere.

Kevin,
Good to have you aboard. Experienced observers are few and far between on these forums, but there are one or two here (that I have run into anyways!). It's hard work trying to answer all the questions concerning meteors and related topics that are posted here, so any assistance is welcome.